Ultranormal

Author: Kevin Lawver

  • Why Do I Love Thee, Tardy?

    The hits just keep on coming for Tardy queries. So, I thought I’d share my favorite things about the dim little turtle from Greg the Bunny. Like Barney on The Simpsons, Tardy gets the throw-away one liners. They’re usually brilliant non-sequiters or add that perfect touch of lunacy to a scene. After four episodes I can honestly say he’s my favorite character on the show, and that’s saying something. The show is great. It’s this generation’s puppet show (my generation had Alf, and the one before it had all those Sid & Marty shows and The Muppet Show). The idea that puppets are real people, like with the Muppets, is a great one, and they’ve really pulled it off. But, Tardy stands out. With his quiet song and “I’m dead, Gil.” from the paintball episode, the “I am strong now!” from the blackmail one and “People aren’t allowed to touch me where my bathing suit covers” in the first one, he has captured my heart. I will forever be a Tardy fan. Well, at least until he sells out and goes Hollywood.

  • It looks like the archive

    It looks like the archive is messed up… hopefully you don’t want to look at it… cuz you can’t at the moment.

  • Wandering Around the Empty Lot

    This round’s Blogger Insider Questions, provided by Desiree.

    I have been reading bits here and there through your blog and saw several mentions of “the Norm“, apparently you like it! So, when did you first come across the Norm, can you recall that day and the events surrounding?

    It was last summer, I think. It might have been before that, but I honestly don’t remember. I love the strip. I like to think of it as Calvin and Hobbes all grown up. It’s funny, sweet and intelligent (except when it’s not). It’s everything that the other comic strips in the paper aren’t. Plus, Reine and Norm are just cute. The story leading up to them getting married was a lot of fun.

    You have one cute little son, one is fun, but sibs to play with are also! How many children do you and Jen plan on having?

    Thanks. I think he’s cute too. Before we had Max, we waffled between five and six. Now, we waffle between one and three. We’re in discussions now on a second, but I think we’re still not sure about that. Max was a tough delivery (huge head – runs in the family) and pretty traumatic. Then, I blew out my knee and couldn’t help for the first 6 months of Max’s existence, which was a big problem. I think we’ll have another child eventually, I’m just not sure when.

    Were you able to leave North America and live on any other continent in the world excluding N.A. where would you choose to go?

    Having lived in Europe when I was a kid, that’s an option. But, every time I turn around, they’re getting crazier and crazier (complain to the US about clean air regulations when everyone smokes and they use unleaded gasoline – ummm, duh). Australia would be fun, since everyone I’ve ever met from Australia was just delightful. I can’t say I’ve ever wanted to live in South America, Africa or Asia, so it’s either Europe or Australia, and I’ll have to vote for being an Aussie.

    What is your sport/exercise and how much time do you put into it weekly?

    Hahaha, that’s funny. I just joined a bowling league… does that count? I’m working on losing weight, and will probably start riding our stationary bike in the near future.

    I see that you do not do the “collaboratives” yet… ie: Friday Five, Tuesday Too, Wednesday Wine, Monday Mission, etc… Is there a reason you have avoided these other than your own life and thoughts fills your blog?

    I just noticed them popping up recently, and honestly, they’re just cheap ways to create content for a site. I don’t have anything against them, and if you enjoy answering them, cool. I can usually come up with enough stupid stuff on my own to write about that I don’t want to fill it with questions unrelated to my life. I started doing Blogger Insider as a way to find new blogs and I thought it would be fun to find a new blog, and then read enough of it to try to come up with questions actually related to that person’s life. I was right, it has been fun.

    What is your most memorable or thought-provoking post that you tend to think back on from time to time?

    I had a string of my favorite posts back in November. This one was in response to discovering whole uncovered portions of the family tree via Google. And this one, short, is one of my favorite memories from childhood.

    Is there a line of work that you have thought that you should have persued? (Or would consider as a second career should you tire of your current computer related career with AOL?)

    When I was a kid, I wanted to be a comic book artist. Then, when I realized that most of them don’t make much money, I decided I wanted to be a medical illustrator… now I work in the online world and can’t imagine giving that up. If I get tired of it, my top secret plan is to sell everything, move back to Tucson and become a college student and go through the whole “what do I want to do with my life” process, since I kind of just fell into this and didn’t do anything in particular to get here other than work my fat butt off (ie: no school, or formal training).

    What is one of your most treasured memories from your highschool days?

    I disliked High School for the most part, but I have some memories etched into the back of my brain that I either can’t or don’t want to forget. Most treasured is a hard one. There was the time I wore a dress onstage for a play, and kissed my friend’s girlfriend (while wearing said dress) just to make him mad. There was the time I made out with cute little Sonja under the scaffold during the dress rehearsal of our big spring musical. I’m pretty sure she went out with me just because I was the bad guy in the play. Those are fun, but I wouldn’t say I treasure them. My one defining memory from high school was turning my best friend into the cops. She was beautiful. I loved her. But, she was damaged by her father and was living a group home which she ran away from with her new “boyfriend” Ben. She called me one night and asked me to come pick her up at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station (downtown DC down by D Street, back in the early 90’s before they cleaned up downtown. It was freaky). Not knowing what to do (being a stupid 16 year-old full), I called her foster parents and asked for advice. They in turn called the cops, who in turn called me demanding that I tell them where she was. I refused, and told them that if they wanted to get to her, I had to go with them and would tell them once we got in the car and headed down 66 from Fairfax into the heart of DC (at 9:30 on a school night). The cop was a short black man who I don’t think appreciated being jerked around by a kid. He waited in the car as I ran all over the deserted station looking for them. I found them, dirty and hungry, in a phone booth, and took them outside. I remember making up something about having bought a new car, covering up the fact that we were headed for a white Buick Century. The cop then proceeded to pull out of the spot before we got there, and I said, in poorly acted style, “Hey, someone’s stealing my car!”. The cop pulled up next to us, hopped out and proceeded to cuff Ben, and put him in the front seat. I spent the next forty minutes in the backseat with Joy. She glared at me slouched in the corner of the seat, and I tried to avoid her by watching the lights on the metro track flash by as we headed back out to our idyllic little suburb and to the police station. I never felt so horrible for doing the right thing. Yep, that’s the memory that comes back most often in dreams and day dreams.

    Name your favorite genre of music.

    Trip Hop, currently. I try not to stick to any one genre, but keep coming back to Massive Attack, Portishead, Radiohead, Amon Tobin and other bands like Morcheeba and Groove Armada. I know Trip Hop is the old label for the genre, but it still works for me. Great coding music. It provides a nice beat without causing headaches. It washes over me and helps me get into that zone where the hours fly and code streams from my fingertips.

    Do you have any hobbies/collections?

    I have a huge comic book collection that’s filling up a closet in our guest bedroom. I don’t really have any hobbies at the moment other than my job, which I would consider a hobby (ok, obsession). Technology fascinates me, especially as it helps people find things, each other and communicate. So, I spend a lot of time trying to learn more and figure out new ways to do things. After that and my family, I don’t leave myself much time for anything else… OK, I do play video games when I get a couple free hours, but I wouldn’t consider that a great hobby, just a way to waste time.

    Coke or Pepsi?

    Dr. Pepper or Code Red. I know, I just have to be difficult.

    How many hours do you sleep on the average night?

    Somewhere between 6 – 8.

  • Wow, at the bottom of

    Wow, at the bottom of yesterday’s post, I mentioned Tardy from Greg the Bunny and today I’ve gotten over a dozen visits from people who found me by way of Google searches for Tardy from Greg the Bunny. Google is amazing.

  • Too Much To Say

    Max woke us up last night crying. That usually means he’s lost his pacifier and just needs help finding and reattaching it to his face. I hopped out of bed, wandered down the hall and when I opened the door was attacked by a smell I don’t remember smelling before. It was a combination of vinegar, summer deli dumpster and dill pickle juice. Max had puked all over himself, his clothes, and his bed. I grabbed him, ran him to the bathroom, fired up the tub, stripped him down, wrapped him in a towel and held him until the tub was ready. He was shaking uncontrolably, and visibly uncomfortable, so I put him in the tub, washed him off quickly, washed the vomit from his hair, grabbed him out of the tub, dried him off, ran him downstairs, put on a fresh diaper and put clean jammies on him. Just as I was standing him up to pull his flannel pants up, he let loose another pink deluge of partially digested food all over me and the towel. I caught most of it either on me, or the towel, sparing him the need for yet another change of clothes. The smell, again, was amazing. I had to fight back my own heaves just to keep catching chunks and hold him up so he didn’t fall off the changing table.

    It was great fun. Jen and I spent the next two hours on the couch with him in my lap. I held the bucket and did my best to catch the ensuing expulsions. I’m pretty proud of myself. I only missed the first part of the first one after we sat down, and that was only because he overshot. I was able to catch the rest in the bowl, keeping him nice and dry and me less puke-stinky. Jen sent me to bed after it looked like he was all done and worn out. She laid down on the floor in his room with him, and I tried to get back to sleep. I think I may have gotten about 4 hours of sleep, but it wasn’t very restful. He’s feeling much better today, although he’s fighting eating the blah food and will only eat popsicles or pedialyte.

    I think we handled the whole thing really well. No one flipped out. We didn’t call our parents crying for help. We did what we could do for him and comforted him the best way we knew how. I think I’m getting the hang of this parenting thing…

    I’m exhausted, but at work toiling away on my big project. There are so many things I’ve wanted to write about this week but haven’t had the time to, like Greg the Bunny, and how I want to start a Tardy fan club. The show is brilliant. I hope it lasts longer than Steve Levitan’s last show (which was also very good, but stuck in the morass that NBC Thursday night has become – Must Cancel TV), Stark Raving Mad. I was going to talk about this whole “warblogging” thing, but it’s old and getting older the more I read. I want to talk about James Lee Burke and how everyone should read him, how much I love to hate the South, the joys of toddlers and the many things I’ve learned about being married. But, they’ll have to wait for some other time. Now, it’s back to work and answering the minute-by-minute e-mails flooding my box.

  • They cancelled Ally McBeal

    They cancelled Ally McBeal, which is just as well. I cancelled it at the beginning of the season. That new girl was kind of cute, but it turned into The Muppet Babies with Mini-Ally running around with Mini-Greg and Old Ally watching them all jealous. It was a good show in its prime, but it ran its course. Bye bye, Ally.

  • Best line of the day

    Best line of the day so far:

    I was in training this morning, and while we were working on one of the in-class examples, the instructor started whistling. Without thinking I said, “Please don’t whistle while we work.” Ok, written out, it’s not that funny, but it was funny in context.

  • Etc

    • I updated my linux newbie page to tell you how to start XWindows from the command prompt.

    • Also, if you were planning on installing YellowDog Linux 2.2 on a newer quicksilver G4 – don’t. Let me save you the trouble. There’s a problem with the new kernel and the installer that will totally hose you. Stick with 2.1 for now. It’s safer. Install and the product work great on my crap old Powerbook, but not my new machine. Go figure.

  • It’s never a good idea

    It’s never a good idea to eat Tums when you have a cough drop in your mouth. The Tums get all over the drop and make it extremely nasty… just thought I’d share.

  • Done done and done

    I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel of the craziness that is work. I’ve submitted what I was supposed to for QA today. I have one more that has to go tomorrow, but it’s done and ready to go. The thing that was in QA before is out and installed and all is well.

    I had to come in really early today and now I’m exhausted. I’m trying to cut down on my carbonated caffeine vehicle consumption, but I’m sorely tempted to go get a Code Red and Dr. Pepper and just forget the new rules today.

    I found an old post today that made me smile. That was over six months ago. I still feel that way, and I’ve done a lot more cool stuff since then.

    I’ll try to come back and share something coherent, but everything’s so secretive today, and I’m too tired to remember what I can say and what I can’t that I think I’ll just shut up.